Gundam, the Gundam journey of a certain glue guy and his mecha girl.

Thor and Miria talked back and forth, leaving Cagalli bewildered. However, Thor's last sentence really surprised Cagalli.

"Really? He's a natural person? How can a natural person operate MS so well?"

Seeing Cagalli's surprised expression, Kira smiled slightly.

"Then Cagalli, I'll tell you our story with our teacher."

Cagalli was taken aback. How come this celebration party had turned into a story about a man before they had even said a few words?

But before she could stop him, Kira had already started talking on his own.

"That day, the first time I saw my teacher..."

-----------------

In stark contrast to the lively atmosphere at the banquet, the prison in Banadia was eerily quiet.

Raven led El to the cell where Andrew was being held.

"What's wrong, great hero? Instead of celebrating your victory, you've come to see me, a defeated general."

Andrew lay on the bed, his voice tinged with languor.

"Can't I come over for a drink?"

Raven shook the bottle in his hand.

"You definitely took that bottle of wine from my house! How come I never realized you were so shameless?"

"Stop yelling. I also brought your most treasured coffee beans with me."

Al was still wearing the gothic Lolita dress that Elsa had given her, and placed the several paper bags she was holding on the table.

“Raven, I want to see Miss Elsa.”

"Elsa lives next door, she must miss you a lot too."

El ignored Andrew and waited until Raven nodded to her before turning and leaving.

"So, what exactly do you want from me?"

Andrew took the cup without hesitation and filled both of their glasses with wine.

"Tell me about the defensive layout you know. Although fighting your way through is an option, I want to avoid combat as much as possible."

Raven laid a map on the desktop.

"Alright, a defeated general should have the attitude of a defeated general. Anyway, those garrison troops can't stop you. Telling you sooner will save us a few deaths."

Andrew agreed with surprising ease, but he knew that Raven had more than one request.

"Besides that, I just wanted to hear you talk about PLANT. Although Miss Lux has told me some things, your view of PLANT is definitely different from Miss Lux's."

"Wait, you've also met Miss Lux? The PLANT singer?"

Andrew was somewhat surprised.

"It's just a matter of fate."

Andrew stared at him for a while, then shook his head and let out a soft chuckle.

"Since you know Miss Klein, some things are actually easier to say..."

Chapter 49 PLANT's Situation

Aslan passed through security and entered the gates of Klein House carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"You've come, Aslan. Wasn't the last time we met at the Junius VII memorial service?"

Lux's voice came from the end of the corridor, followed by light and hurried footsteps. She rushed to the door to greet him, giving Aslan her signature smile, but Lux paused slightly when she saw the red military uniform Aslan was wearing.

"Uh, I have to go back to the front line later, so I'm in a hurry and came here in my uniform. Sorry."

Aslan explained somewhat hastily.

"It's OK."

Lux quickly put her smile back on her face.

"I've been so busy with all sorts of things here that I haven't been able to contact you properly... Ahaha, Ant!"

Behind Lux, a large group of colorful Harpos tumbled down the stairs, chattering away. Among these round Harpos, there was also a square-headed, mechanical pet with a completely different appearance from the Harpos.

"What is this?"

Aslan saw the boxy mechanical pet; he didn't recall seeing it when he last visited Klein's house.

"This is an ant. A friend I met on the Archangel gave it to me. Didn't Aslan see it before on the Vesalius?"

Lux bent down, cradled the ant in her hands, and introduced it to Aslan.

Aslan then remembered that he seemed to have seen it on the Vesalius on its return journey.

How could I forget something like this? Am I neglecting my fiancée too much?

Aslan asked himself.

However, for Aslan now, he really doesn't have much room to care about other people's feelings.

Since returning to PLANT, the events he experienced on the battlefield have been lingering in his mind.

'I joined the army to prevent things like Junius 7 from happening again, but what did I do on this mission? Destroyed a colony satellite, and then faced Kira with a gun. I didn't join the mobile suit to do these things...'

"Athrun?"

Lux looked at Aslan, who had suddenly frozen in place, and couldn't help but ask.

"Uh, sorry, I was daydreaming." Just as Aslan was feeling embarrassed, he remembered that he was holding a bouquet of flowers. "These flowers are for you."

"Wow, thank you, Aslan."

Lux reached out and took the flower, then lowered her head to inhale its fragrance. When she looked up, her radiant smile was even more beautiful than the flower in her arms.

She handed the bouquet to the butler and led Aslan inside the mansion, but as Aslan passed a room with a half-open door, a sound coming from the crack in the door made him slow his pace involuntarily.

"The election for the chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council is nearing its end. Mr. Guest, judging from the current situation, the new chairman is indeed Chairman Sara, right?"

"Judging from the vote count, Chairman Sara is already leading by several percentage points. To be honest, although I personally have great respect for Mr. Klein's contributions to PLANT over the years, in times of war, Chairman Sara, with her military experience and more assertive style, is indeed more reliable. No one wants to repeat the mistakes of that bloody, erotic affair..."

-----------------

At the same moment, in a meeting room of the PLANT council building.

“You’ve won, Patrick.”

Sigur's voice carried a hint of weariness. Although he had anticipated the current election situation, the reality still left him somewhat disheartened.

"Whether it's the Speaker's seat or the breakthrough operation, in the end, it has all gone your way. But never forget that war is just a means, not an end."

However, Patrick did not take Siegfried's outdated arguments to heart.

“But Sigur, if we don’t win the war, then everything is meaningless, isn’t it?”

"I mean, how far do you want to win before you stop? The more the war spreads, the more hatred will accumulate. Once it gets out of control, it will become a fight to the death, and then it will be difficult to stop."

"It is precisely to avoid that situation that I must end this war as soon as possible; the disruptive operation exists for this purpose."

Patrick’s eyes held absolute confidence in his beliefs as he turned to look at Siegfried, his voice ringing out.

"Moreover, we Adjusters are a completely new species, and there is absolutely no need for us to coexist with natural humans."

Although Siegfried sensed Patrick’s strong will, he still chose to try his best to persuade him.

“A new species? What kind of new species can’t even reproduce its own offspring? Even with the implementation of the compulsory marriage law, the birth rate of the third generation adjusters is still declining. We are not on the path of evolution at all.”

"Of course, Siegfried's advice won't work," Patrick replied without hesitation.

“You’re too pessimistic, Sigur. With the excellence of us Adjusters, such difficulties are only temporary and will eventually be overcome. When we started PLANT together, the difficulties we faced were much greater than this.”

"Patrick, what do you take life for? Life is conceived, not manufactured!"

"It seems your views are not only pessimistic, but also outdated."

Patrick's tone carried a hint of disappointment.

"Your advocacy of intermarriage with natural humans will only pollute the genes of us modulators, eventually causing us to degenerate back into a species as ignorant as natural humans."

Patrick pushed open the door and walked out of the room. Without waiting for Sigel's response, he lost interest in continuing the debate with Sigel, leaving Sigel alone in the dimly lit meeting room.

“We haven’t evolved, Patrick.”

Sigur closed his eyes and remained silent for a long time.

If his country is about to slide into an abyss of chaos, he must make a decision before it is too late to salvage the situation.

'It's time to contact Halbarton and Orb.'

-----------------

"Aslan, you're leaving already? Your father wants to see you too. It would be wonderful if you could stay and have dinner with us."

“Sorry, it’s time for me to get back to the team. Yzak and the others are still fighting on the front lines, and I can’t stay in PLANT forever.”

"Oh, I see. Then there's nothing we can do."

Lux’s tone carried a hint of regret, but the gentle smile on her face remained unchanged.

"But I will definitely come to visit again during my next vacation."

Aslan dared not look at Lux's face any longer. After hastily leaving those words, he turned and left in a hurry.

He couldn't remember what he had talked about with Lux. With his return to the team approaching, his mind was filled with thoughts of the battle on the front lines.

I'm such a bad fiancé.

Aslan thought this, but still silently drove his car back to the military camp.

Chapter 50 Short Sword L's First Battle (Part 1)

Earth orbit, Eighth Fleet flagship, Menelaus hangar.

Lieutenant Rand Bauer nervously conducted the final adjustments to his new vehicle before the sortie.

Short Sword L, that's the model of his new car.

Unlike the Möbius he had driven before, this was a weapon of the same specifications as the King and Shig equipped by ZAFT on the other side.

Lieutenant Rand was one of the few surviving MA pilots from the previous Low Orbit Battle. He remembered that in that battle, the MA units of the Eighth Fleet were easily defeated by ZAFT at the beginning of the engagement.

Faced with the hordes of King and Shig, the Allied forces' Mobius was utterly powerless.

Lieutenant Rand has survived to this day solely because he was fortunate enough to be chosen.

That's right, not because his driving skills were particularly good, but simply because he was lucky.

On the day of the low-orbit battle, Rand's Möbius was unfortunately shot down in the first wave of fire, and when he performed a circling maneuver according to the established tactics, his Möbius was naturally targeted by the enemy.

The sirens blared incessantly in the cockpit, just as Rand saw the King, who had locked onto him, point his gun at him.

A green beam of light pierced precisely through the cockpit of King's aircraft.

Then Lieutenant Rand saw a blue mobile suit, quite different in appearance from King and Sig, charge into the enemy ranks. He locked onto the second King at close range with his beam rifle, pulled the trigger, and a green beam pierced the target's chest. He then used the momentum to spin the suit and smashed the third King's suit with the armament on his shoulder.

Later, Lieutenant Rand learned that the mobile suit was called the Short Sword.

King and Shig, who had flaunted their power in front of Mobius, were no different from Mobius in front of the short sword.

Later, Lieutenant Rand instinctively followed the short sword in his Möbius, watching how it knocked down all the enemies that stood in its way.

Now, he will be piloting a mobile suit similar to the short sword that saved his life.

Although the technicians told him that the Dagger L was a simplified, mass-produced version of the Dagger, the blue streak he had seen that day, wandering freely through the universe, still lingered in his mind.

'Can I do the same thing as that MS?'

As Lieutenant Rand was thinking this, he heard the angry roar of his superior, Major Bobran.

"Rand, are you out of your mind? Stop hogging the launcher! You're holding up the entire sortie line. Get your squad out there and get to work!"

"I'm so sorry! Rand, air-mounted short sword L, sortie!"

After a strong push, Rand's Dagger L took off from the Meneraus, which had been converted into an MS-equipped unit. The combat support program inside the Dagger L displayed the battlefield situation captured by the machine on the screen in front of Lieutenant Rand.

'This is far more advanced than Möbius; that thing is practically a flying coffin.'

Lieutenant Rand muttered to himself.

A moment later, his two wingmen were also ejected. They were also Dagger Ls, but they no longer had assault backpacks and were only equipped with the basic shield, beam rifle, and beam sword set.